Investigators believe the killing of a former Colorado real estate developer in Belize last week was a targeted hit, investigators said in a news conference Monday.
Belize Police Commissioner Chester Williams said Boris Mannsfeld, 56, had just arrived in the Central American country on the day of his death, which “has all indications of a hit,” according to a video of the news conference shared by Breaking Belize News with The Denver Post,
Williams said Mannsfeld had been in and out of the country since the deaths of two men the commissioner called his “associates”: Ricardo Borja and Darren Taylor.
Though multiple people were arrested in connection to Taylor’s murder and are awaiting trial, Borja’s death remains unsolved, Willaims said. He said another associate of Mannsfeld’s, Frik De Meyere, was a person of interest in Borja’s death and is now in custody and being questioned about Mannsfeld’s killing.
De Meyere is only a suspect and has not been charged in either case, Williams said.
According to De Meyere’s LinkedIn profile, he worked for Mannsfeld’s Belize-based real estate company as a general manager and sales associate for 12 years before leaving the company and founding his own competing business in January 2024.
Investigators can’t say for sure whether any of the three deaths are related, but Willaims said “it would not be wrong for one to assume that there may be some connection there” and police are “looking at that possibility.”
Mannsfeld was shot in the back of the neck while in the yard of his home in the Cocoplum Villas at Maya Beach, one of his luxury development projects. Police found him face down in a pool of blood.
The 56-year-old moved to Belize from Denver in 2006, splitting his time between the Central American country and Colorado, and founded Boris Mannsfeld & Associates in Placencia, Belize, in 2010. Mannsfeld spent more than 30 years investing in and developing Belize real estate, according to his company biography.
Williams also said a licensed firearm belonging to Mannsfeld was found near his body. Investigators believe the real estate developer knew he was being watched but acted too slowly to defend himself against his attacker.
Arlette Gomez, the acting general manager of Boris Mannsfeld & Associates, said the company “is not authorized to make any statements” about Mannsfeld’s death.
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